They drill teeth.
They interview staff.
They do payroll.
They do accounts.
They do banking.

Some do ordering and stock control.
Some do sundry supplies at supermarkets.

Back at the office they do the marketing.
They write the adverts.
They talk to all of the marketing reps from Google, PPC firms, SEO firms, and the like.

Why is this?

Why would someone who drills teeth all day for a living be doing all these extra menial tasks as well?

Why not simply let someone else do these duties?

Why overload yourself with all of these other time consuming tasks when you could be, and need to be unwinding and resting and relaxing?

Why not pay someone else to do these other things?
Those you pay will be more specialised, they will be more enthusiastic, and they will be less expensive.

Doesn’t that make sense?

Why would a dentist working on a $400.00 per hour hourly rate spend time doing something that he could pay someone better qualified to do at an hourly rate of $30.00 per hour?

It just doesn’t make any sense to be operating in any other manner?

Even within the dental office I see dentists mixing plaster, I see dentists mixing alginate, I see dentists performing a whole range of clinical and clerical duties while people better qualified to do those duties stand and watch. On lower hourly rates.

This just doesn’t make any sense at all, does it?

What are you majoring in?

Jim Rohn said:

“Don’t major in minor things.”

What he meant was that you should always do what is the best use of your time and then delegate those activities that you are able to delegate.

And sometimes the best use of your time is resting and relaxation.

Sure doing some things yourself can save you the expense of paying someone else to do those tasks.

But what I’ve found is that when I pay someone else to look after duties such as these, those people tend to do a much better job in a lot less time.

For your own sanity, you need to delegate.

By all means drill teeth, and supervise and manage your investment in your business.

I’ve found the best use of those points is in purchasing upgrades on tickets that I’ve bought and paid for.

But, and I mean BUT, try and redeem those points for actual flights with the airline, and you enter a whole new vortex.

Do you know those times in your life when you are forced to remember past experiences of severe pain and trauma?

Let me explain…

Three years ago I took my family of four on a vacation to Europe and the USA, and we booked nearly all our flights with FF points.

But we ended up having to book with partner airlines on several legs rather than with our own airline Qantas, because of the ridiculously poor options they [Qantas] offered for frequent flyers.

Now let me get this correct.

A FF flight is NOT a free flight for the FF member.
What it is, is a flight that the member has already purchased by accumulating points, which have a monetary value, and were acquired by either flying, dining, or purchasing something.

FF flights are not rewards in advance.

They ARE rewards for loyalty and previous purchases.

In fact, by accumulation, the airline has already been holding the “money” in advance for those flights to be taken at a later date.

So why do the airlines make it so difficult to redeem flights?

Three years ago when I wanted to take my family to Europe via Dubai, Qantas offered us travel from Sydney to Dubai via Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

Despite operating at least one direct flight daily to Dubai from Sydney?

We ended up travelling on reward points with Emirates Sydney to Dubai direct, and were given three flights to choose from.

On this same trip, when we wanted to fly from London to New York, we were offered firstly a route via Saville [yes, in Spain] and when I rejected that and held out for a better option, a second offer came a few days later to travel to New York from London via Los Angeles.

I kid you not….

The third offer that then followed ended up being a BA direct flight…. that we accepted.

Now… recently, like yesterday, I booked two flights using FF points for my wife and her mother to travel to London in July next year.

I did the transaction online through Qantas FF, but the only flight available was traveling BA via Singapore.

And I accidentally booked them one at a time, rather than on the same booking.

And because of this small error on my part, BA would not guarantee that my wife and her mother would have adjoining seats for both legs of their journey to London.

Can you believe this?

So my wife went to work on this, trying to find a solution… phoning, phoning, phoning….

In the end, after being given the run-around by several BA and Qantas staff, my wife ended up speaking with a Qantas FF agent who was solution oriented.

The end result?

Wife and Mother-in-law booked on adjacent seats on Qantas QF1 going to London via Dubai.

How was this so?

The agent my wife spoke with recognised my wife’s concern about the importance of this travel, and she also recognised that my wife’s husband was a Platinum FF with a large number of points…

How does this relate to Dental?

You can have procedures, rules, and systems, but you can’t forget that on the end of every transaction is a human being with emotions and feelings.

The seats my wife received on QF1 probably were earmarked for release at a later date, but hadn’t been made available just yet…. the agent who my wife spoke to who organised this booking had sufficient foresight to see a WIN-WIN outcome for all parties.

And that’s all we really need to do.

Are you looking for a win-win solution when you talk with your patients?

I’ve spent the past week in Melbourne, meeting up with various thought leaders in Dentistry.

But I wanted to tell you about a moment of special attention that my wife and I received during the week while enjoying a lunch at restaurant Grossi Florentino.

My wife and I had never dined at Grossi before. And so, what unfolded for us, was indeed a real surprise to us.

You see, at the end of our lunch meal, my wife and I were treated to a guided tour of the restaurant.

But not just a tour of the restaurant we ate at, Grill, …. you see, the place where we dined was part of a conglomeration of dining facilities, and we received a right “Royal Tour” of the whole establishment.

Our waitress Amelia happily escorted us firstly to the Florentino restaurant and private dining rooms upstairs.
Then there was the Cellar Bar next door and coffee and breakfast area as well. All separated at the front but interconnected at the rear….. truly amazing.

Finally, we were escorted to the lane behind Grossi, where a very new evening bar had just been opened….very very exciting.

The reason I tell you this is because of the “atmosphere” in which we were treated….an atmosphere of contagious enthusiasm!!

You see, when we first arrived at Grill, and we told the maître de Jeanette that we were from interstate and that this was our first visit to Grossi, she immediately offered us the option of switching to upstairs if we so desired, or better still, she offered to take us on a tour of the whole establishment after we had finished our meal.

Jeanette explained that not only was there an upstairs and a downstairs eatery, but there was also a brasserie, a wine bar, and now a new “secret” that we needed to see.

This was all offered to us purely because we were engaging customers who were engaged by our wonderful hostess…

I suppose that Jeanette would have guessed that there was a likelihood that we could possibly share our story with our friends, which is kind of what I am doing right here right now.

And that a word of mouth recommendation is a very cost effective way of getting your message out there to the masses.

But she probably never thought that I would blog about her great business attitude…

And how much did this tour cost Grossi?

Maybe ten minutes at the end of the lunch shift….that’s about it.

And a few minutes of connection with us at different stages throughout the meal…

What’s my point?

How much does it cost to be “engaged” with your customers?

How much does it cost to give one of your dental patients a “behind the scenes tour” of your dental facility?

And how special do you think that patient is going to feel?

And do you think that patient may tell a few people what you just did to make them feel special?

It doesn’t take much to see the bigger picture.

And when you love your business, as an owner or as an employee, you definitely begin to see the bigger picture.

A little bit of extra attention paid towards the right clients will reap a substantial reward.

Have you got what it takes to put in that small effort in the right places, consistently?

You do have it, and you will put in, if you truly do love your business?

You have to wonder about the nerve of some people out there don’t you?

They say one thing, but history and research has shown that they do the complete opposite.

Imagine this, if you would….

Would you invite a friend over to your place for the day, from 8:00am to 5:00pm, and not have anything to offer them to eat for lunch?

And knowing that your friend was coming by cab, and there are no food outlets within walking distance of your place, would you simply leave your friend to starve?

Would you think it could be prudent to ask your friend to bring a cut lunch?

You see, after all, your friend may eat regular food, and you and your whole household have dietary restrictions.

Or would it simply be appropriate to call your friend a few days before their visit, and ask them if you could get themselves something beforehand and bring it with them?

Especially if your friend was coming from interstate to visit you just for this one day.

As incredulous as this story sounds, it is indeed a true story.

But with one small variation.

The “guest friend” was a dental consultant doing a paid in office visit.

She was invited to spend a day at a suburban dental office where there was no shop within walking distance of the clinic, and having flown interstate the night before and then been couriered out to the practice before most shops were open, it came as a bit of a surprise to the consultant to not even be offered a coffee or a biscuit.

Well, I suppose the dental office thought that they were paying the consultant enough already in transport, accommodation, and the day’s tuition and service, but unless the consultant was Nostradamus she had no idea that starvation was going to be a part of her day.

As far as I know things at this dental office never improved, but at least the consultant had a heads-up to purchase a salad and some crackers at the grocery store the evening before her next visits.

Would you do that in your home?

Or more importantly, would you do that to your patients in your dental office?

It may not be the refreshments.

How are your magazines and reading materials?

Do you cater to readers of several genres?

Or do your magazines only cater to hunters?

Or golfers?

Or mums?

How’s your refreshments then?

You know, the person who drank the most coffee at my office was never a patient of my dental practice?

But he did accompany his wife, who was a valued patient, each and every time she attended. And although Brian did not have any teeth of his own, he was a valued attender at our office and he appreciated the attention paid to him…..

If you want visitors to your dental office to feel valued, and you want them to keep returning, then make them feel important, as Mary Kay Ash used to say.

Customers and patients will dump you in a heartbeat if they perceive apathy from you or your staff towards them.

Sure, the consultant was being paid, but heck, she did not have a crystal ball to be able to anticipate her own starvation.

It’s kind of like having a guy do your lawns all day, but not offering him a cool drink or a refreshment?

And sure, the consultant was being paid, but so are the dental team members too, and you’d never treat them in that way, or would you?

The funny thing about this story is that this consultant worked with this office for eighteen months and really turned their numbers around in a skyward direction, yet less than six months after she finished up there the dentist from that office was treading the boards as a “self-made” guru.

With a totally new team under their belt, the dentist in this story certainly is the master of re-invention.

Not retention.

Re-invention…..

You see one year only after this consultant left that office the whole team there, except for family, has been replaced.

I’m sure the story of the starving consultant is only a case of selective amnesia on behalf of that dentist.

But as a “self-made” guru, I think that dentist needs to selectively remember and acknowledge those who have helped to miraculously sky-rocket them to success.